Speak Now
by Ellice Rose
Summary: Hermione attends the wedding of the person she loves. And it's not to her. Fic based heavily off the song Speak Now by Taylor Swift. All owned my JKR and TSwift. Harry/ Hermione


Hey guys! This is my first fanfic in forever so don't expect much. Just so there's no confusion, this is a Harry/ Hermione fic. I always have and always will support them. Anyway, this is a short fic based heavily off the song Speak Now by Taylor Swift. My story isn't perfect and I'm sure it has some plot holes and such, but please don't flame. Constructive criticism is encourage. Thanks and enjoy!

Speak Now

I glance over my shoulder as I creep around a corner of the church. After wading through several bushes and around the AC unit, I reach a back door. Silently, I turn the handle. Locked.

"_Alohomora_!" I whisper urgently.

The lock clicks and I try again. The door opens, mercifully, without a sound and I begin to walk along a brightly lit hallway, completely lost. When did the ceremony start? I can't remember. Hopefully I wasn't interrupting it. Or hopefully I am…

Just as I pass the bathrooms, a man comes out of the door. His flaming red hair is easily recognizable. One of his ginger eyebrows arches when he realizes it's me. "Hermione?"

"Hello, Ron," I says in relief.

He gives me a smile. "And why is it you were coming though that door?"

I laugh. "It seems I was uninvited."

Ron looks kind of awkward. "He didn't think you would want to come." Of course he was talking about Harry. Today was the day he was marring Ginny, Ron's sister. My stomach began to churn at the thought.

I sigh, all humor lost. "Well, I do. There's something I need to tell him."

Ron smiles, but it completely serious when he says, "Consider everything before you do." I shake off the warning without even thinking about it. There was no way I was going to stop now.

Ron pushes a lock of her hair behind my ear and my heart hurts. "I miss you," he says.

"I know," I reply.

"It's not enough is it?" he says with a sad smile on his face.

"Ron…" I say, not wanting to talk about this right now.

"S'okay," he says. "I have nobody to blame but myself. I'm the reason you're here, wanting to talk to him. I pushed you away."

"Ron, I wish we could go back. I do. But it's done. It was done the day I found out about her."

Ron drops his head. "I know. I was stupid. But Harry was there for you, wasn't he?"

I shift my weight. This is the first time me and Ron have talked about this. Harry was there when Ron had cheated. He was there to comfort me and talk to her and hold me as I cried. And I was there for him. And that developed into something real. Something so real it hurt. Something so real it was happy and sad at the same time. Right and wrong. Good and bad. Something real enough to chase after, something real enough to never let go.

But other wheels had already been set in motion. Ginny was already making plans and she was too out of control for Harry to stop her. So that's why I was here—at their wedding, shaking in my heels. A hour or two and it was over. And what was real would be lost. Forgotten. I was determined to never let that happen.

"Yeah," I whisper. "He was."

Ron steps forward and says, "I'll always be here." And he kisses my hair.

"I know."

Then, several more faces come around the corner. A dozen or so people who were as close to Hermione as Harry. His friends. Neville, Luna, Cho, Dean Thomas, Michael Corner, Seamus, Lavender, Viktor Krum, Alicia, George, and Angelica. All walking down the hallway with huge smiles. All grown up.

Several people call out, "Hermione!" and for a minute, I am passed from person to person and hugged.

We stand there for a while all talking and sharing stories. The moment is happy and a deep, fresh breath from the life I have been living the last few months. Happiness was brought back at the news of Dean's new daughter, Cho's new fiancée, and Neville's newly accepted job teaching Herbology at Hogwarts. All the while, Ron sits at my side, joking and together we managed to avoid any questions about our severed relationship.

"Oh, Hermione," Luna say in her dreamy voice. "Have you seen Ginny today?"

I carefully lie. "Yes, I talked to her just when I arrived."

"Is she still yelling at poor Gabrielle Delacour?"

This catches me off guard. "She was yelling at Gabrielle? Why?"

"Oh, yes," Luna says. "Something about her dress. I think Gabrielle said something about the shape of it behind her back."

Ron scoffs at his sister. "Everyone did; it looks like a pastry."

I smile a little.

Cho then cuts in. "The ceremony is about to start!"

Suddenly, everyone is rushing back to the chapel to find their seats. I shoot Ron a nervous look and he smiles. This is the moment I have been waiting for. The butterflies in my stomach flutter as I follow my friends back to the ceremonial room.

Although uninvited, Ron leads me to where he is sitting.

"Sorry, Ron," I say. "I can't."

What I don't tell him is that it's not fair to him. I have moved on to someplace healthier and happier. To somewhere where Harry treats me as if I am the best thing in his life. A place where I fall asleep thinking about him and he calls me to talk. And we visit each other in secret. And we hold each other close. And late in the night, when I feel like the loneliness in crippling, Harry is there, on my doorstep, telling me he loves me and that he'll never leave me. That he wishes it were me.

Suddenly, the organ starts to play a song that sounds like a death march. Did Ginny pick that out? I quickly walk to the back corner and while everybody's eyes are fixed on the door, I sink behind the curtains. Curtains? Seems a little over the top…

Gabrielle graces through the door looking beautiful and slightly irritated. Her dress is black and one-shouldered. Black?

The, Ginny emerges from the door, clutching her father's arm. Arthur is quite old now and has been terribly lost since Molly died a few months ago. But today, even with his slipping memory, he is smiling and walking Ginny down the aisle.

Or, I should say, she is walking him.

Ginny is floating down the rose-petal littered path like she's the queen. Her expression isn't of happiness or love. It is fake. Plastered there by make-up and months of planning. Even though I can't see Harry though the quests that have all ceremonially stood when Ginny walked in, I know he wishes it was me.

Don't you, Harry?

The music dies and the quests take their seats. My hands are sweating and the nervousness is threatening to overtake me. So close to my part. My cue—

Through the curtains, I hear the preacher say, "Speak now or forever hold you peace."

I hear the silence, my last chance, slipping away. My heart hammers in my chest. It's the only way for both of us. If we are to ever be together, it's now or never. Now or never. And after a second passes, and it seems like I won't have the courage to do it, I emerge from the curtains with shaky hands. Ginny's eyes find me and her expression is appalled. They all begin to look at me, following her gaze. Every guest. Hundreds of eyes. Horrified looks from everyone in the room.

But all I see is him.

I see his hopeful smile. The love in his kaleidoscope green eyes. His messy, black hair. And I find the strength. Because I know him. I know Harry like nobody else. He is my other half. And it only took me until his wedding to tell him that.

"Harry, don't say yes! Run away with me," I blurt out.

I hear people gasp, but I'm only looking at him. His smile…

"Meet me at the back door and it'll be just me and you!" I say as I walk up the aisle that Ginny was just on. Harry is beaming silently at Ginny's side, but she is too angry to notice. "Don't wait, Harry. Don't say your vows. Hear me out!"

For a moment, he is silent.

And then, to my delight and relief, he says, "Let's run away."

Ginny's head snaps to him and she shrieks, "WHAT!"

But he doesn't even flinch. "I'll meet you when I'm out of my tux. At the back door. I'm so glad I didn't say my vows."

He steps down from the alter and we rush to each other and embrace tightly. His kisses me for the first time and then he leans down and whispers something for only me to hear.

"I'm so glad you were around when they said, 'Speak now.'"

So? What did you think? I know it wasn't very descriptive and a whole lot of other things, but bare with me. We all need to practice to get better :) Oh, and just so you know, I'm not implying that I think Ron would ever cheat on Hermione. It was just way easier to do that than to explain elaborately how their relationship fell apart (which I tried at first, and it didn't sound great). I love Ron, haha. So review, please! And thanks again!


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